Project living

Social policy is inscribed on the landscape. And perhaps the most telling such inscription in U.S. cities is the public housing project, an inscription that is currently being erased. In the history of the building and unbuilding of these structures—particularly the most massive projects such as Columbia Point in Boston or the Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago—one can read the story of the anemic American welfare state and the profound unease with which we have met the plight of the poor.